gave thousands of largesses of cows to Brahmans; but because he gave away one belonging to another person, he went to hell” (Ibid, xiv. 2,787 and 2,789.  Muir, pp, 31, 32).  “Let us now examine into the theology of India, as reported by Megasthenes, about B.C. 300 (Cory’s ’Ancient Fragments,’ p. 226, et seq.).  ’They, the Brahmins, regard the present life merely as the conception of persons presently to be born, and death as the birth into a life of reality and happiness, to those who rightly philosophise:  upon this account they are studiously careful in preparing for death’” (Inman’s “Ancient Faiths,” vol. ii., p. 820).  Zoroaster (B.C. 1,200, or possibly 2,000) taught:  “The soul, being a bright fire, by the power of the Father remains immortal, and is the mistress of life” (Ibid, p. 821).  “The Indians were believers in the immortality of the soul, and conscious future existence.  They taught that immediately after death the souls of men, both good and bad, proceed together along an appointed path to the bridge of the gatherer, a narrow path to heaven, over which the souls of the pious alone could pass, whilst the wicked fall from it into the gulf below; that the prayers of his living friends are of much value to the dead, and greatly help him on his journey.  As his soul enters the abode of bliss, it is greeted with the word, ’How happy art thou, who hast come here to us, mortality to immortality!’ Then the pious soul goes joyfully onward to Ahura-Mazdao, to the immortal saints, the golden throne, and Paradise” (Ibid, p. 834).  From these notions the writer of the story of Jesus drew his idea of the “narrow way” that led to heaven, and of the “strait gate” through which many would be unable to pass.  Cicero (bk. vi.  “Commonwealth,” quoted by Inman) says:  “Be assured that, for all those who have in any way conducted to the preservation, defence, and enlargement of their native country, there is a certain place in heaven, where they shall enjoy an eternity and happiness.”  It is needless to further multiply quotations in order to show that our latest development of these Eastern creeds only reiterated the teaching of the earlier phases of religious thought.

“But, at least,” urge the Christians, “we owe the sublime idea of the UNITY OF GOD to revelation, and this is grander than the Polytheism of the Pagan world.”  Is it not, however, true, that just as Christians urge that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are but one God, so the thinkers of old believed in one Supreme Being, while the multitudinous gods were but as the angels and saints of Christianity, his messengers, his subordinates, not his rivals?  All savages are Polytheists, just as were the Hebrews, whose god “Jehovah” was but their special god, stronger than the gods of the nations around them, gods whose existence they never denied; but as thought grew, the superior minds in each nation rose over the multitude of deities to the idea of one Supreme Being working in many ways, and the loftiest